Inside of a warehouse were six ponies, two of each subdivision of the pony race. Three of them were mares, and three were fillies. All of them but one was busy packing cupcakes into boxes. The pink pony smiled.
“Good,” she said. “Production is going as planned. Shy.” A yellow pegasus rose her head. “How much of the ‘special ingredient’ do we have left?”
“Enough,” she answered. “We’ve already made at least four dozen cupcakes with it. And we have enough left over to make three dozen more.”
“Perfect. Rare,” a white unicorn looked up at her. “What’s our predicted profit on the merchandise?” The white pony flipped through a notebook.
“If we sell everything we have so far,” she said scribbling in the book. “We should make a minimum of 3000 bits.” Pinkie frowned.
“That’s less than last week’s profit.”
“I know, we’ve had to lower our prices thanks to the Cakes.” Pinkie spit on the ground. Rarity winced. “Must you do that?”
“Sorry, but those Cakes have stolen our customers for the last time. Girls,” Three fillies walked towards Pinkie. She kneeled down looking at the three of them in the eyes. “You know what to do?” All three of them saluted.
“Yes ma'am!” a yellow earth pony said.
“Of course!” a white unicorn said.
“I’d rather die than not finish this job!” an orange pegasus said. Pinkie smiled.
“Good. Get back to work, then you three can hit the streets.” The three of them dispersed getting back to work. In one of the warehouse’s many windows, were three ponies and a baby dragon. All of them were watching the scene.
“Is that them?” the pegasus asked.
“Eeyup,” the earth pony said. “Those three have been spreading Booster Juice to children via cupcakes. Can you imagine it? Children! It’s disgusting.”
“Are they the ones who took Ly and Bon out?” the unicorn asked. The baby dragon nodded.
“Yeah, it was them,” he said. “The pink one was the one who did them in. She was laughing while she did it too.” The pegasus gritted her teeth together.
“I can’t wait to bust them,” she said. The dragon made signals with his hands. The assembled group armed themselves and headed towards the door. He counted down from three with his fingers. At zero, the earth pony bucked the door down. All four of them rushed in. The six occupants of the warehouse stared at the sight.
“FREEZE!” all four of the intruders shouted. They all raised their arms and pointed to the group. “E.S.P.D!” The six ponies stopped what they were doing.
“Well, well, well,” Pinkie said. “If it isn’t Sergeant Applejack and her little lackeys. I’m surprised you found this place. Was it Twily over there who found out where we were?”
“You shut your mouth!” Twilight shouted. She slowly approached the group. “You’re all under arrest.”
“I think not,” Rarity said. Six other arms were raised and pointed directly at the intruders. “You’re outnumbered and out gunned. There’s no way that you can survive this. So would you mind turning a blind eye?”
“Not a chance,” Rainbow Dash said. All ten occupants were standing still, arms pointed at one another. They waited for the other to make their move. A clam was with them. It made the situation tenser. A short ‘pop’ was heard and a white projectile exploded on the dragon’s forehead. He fell to the ground.
“Spike!” Twilight yelled. The E.S.P.D’s attention was drawn towards a yellow pegasus. Smoke was rising from her weapon.
“Oh my, oh my, oh my,” she quickly said. Her eyes were wide. “I didn’t mean to do that! I’m so sorry!”
“Sorry won’t bring him back,” Twilight said through gritted teeth. All of them fired their weapons. Everypony there hid for cover. White projectiles flew all around the building. Rainbow Dash crawled under the chaos to where the others were hiding. She turned behind an overturned barrel to find Scootaloo and Apple Bloom. Rainbow grabbed the two ponies in a tight hold.
“Gotcha!” Sweetie Belle turned her attention to her friends.
“Bloom! Scoot!” she shouted. Rarity pushed her behind herself.
“Leave them, it’s already too late!” she said. She turned her attention to Pinkie who was firing at their opponents. “I believe a retreat is in order.” Pinkie turned Rarity. She saw Rainbow Dash raise her weapon at her. Pinkie fired a shot and a white powder exploded on the pegasus’ shoulder.
“Agreed. Shy!” said pony turned to Pinkie. “Time to make like a tree.” She nodded and ran towards the exit. Rarity, Sweetie Belle, and Pinkie followed. All of them were firing behind them. Applejack ran to where Rainbow Dash lay.
“Dash!” she cradled the pony’s head in her forelegs. She looked at the powder. “Oh no. Nonononono. Don’t do this to me Dash. You can beat this. We just need to get you some help.” A weak chuckle escaped Rainbow’s mouth.
“I doubt that would help,” her voice was weak. “A shame too. Next week, I was supposed to retire. I was going to explore the country. Maybe visit Macintosh Hills.”
“You can still do that Dash!” Tears began to form in Applejack’s eyes. “You can still travel. You can go to Horseshoe Bay, and Applewood! Come on, don’t do this.” Rainbow coughed.
“No, no I can’t. Promise me one thing AJ,” she slowly raised one of her hooves. Applejack held onto it. “Take them down.” Rainbow’s eyes slowly closed and a breath exited her mouth. Her body went numb.
“Dash?” Applejack shook her body. No response came from it. “Dash!” Tears were freely flowing from her eyes. Twilight ran to Applejack.
“Sergeant,” she said. “Come on, we need to catch them.”
“But Spike and Dash...”
“I know. But sitting here and weeping over them isn’t the best use of our time. And I don’t think they’d want us to do that. The best thing we can do for them is to catch those criminals.” Applejack looked down at Rainbow’s lifeless body. A purple hoof reached for Applejack. “For Spike and Rainbow.” Applejack placed Rainbow’s head on the ground. She wiped away the tears in her eyes and grabbed the hoof.
“For Spike and Dash.” She stood up and reloaded her weapon. Just watch Dash, I’ll get them. The two ran to the exit following the others. When their footsteps could no longer be heard, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo sat up.
“Wow,” Apple Bloom said. “They take this game really seriously.” Spike sat up and wiped the flour off his face.
“You have no idea how serious it can get,” he replied. He looked to Rainbow Dash. “And that line that you said, really? You really had to say one of the most clichéd things ever?”
“Can’t hear you,” she said with her eyes closed. “I’m dead.” Scootaloo walked to her fallen idol.
“Rest in peace Rainbow Dash,” she said. “I guess we have to enjoy these cupcakes without you.” Rainbow’s eyes shot open. She flipped herself up onto her hooves.
“Oh look at that, I’m alive!” The three younger occupants chuckled. “They’re in the boxes right?” Apple Bloom and Scootaloo nodded. Rainbow headed to the boxes. She opened one and passed a cupcake to each of the others. All of them sat in the warehouse passing the time with conversations and stoires, waiting for their game of Cops and Robbers to end.